Author Archives: Bubbawheat
Missy and the Maxinator
Missy and the Maxinator: A Hero Will Rise 2009
This is the other movie that I borrowed from my new local library along with Maximum Ride though it’s a complete coincidence that both movies feature a main character with the name Max that’s also a part of the movie’s title. This is an extremely low budget movie that’s filled with what seem to be non-professional teen actors doing a stereotypical teen romance story with some Smallville-esque budding super powers for the main character. The problem is that there’s not much to go on in the story department, the effects are sub-par, and the teen non-actors aren’t up to the challenge of making the story interesting as they deliver their lines in some of the flattest ways possible. I respect the effort, but it was ultimately incredibly dull.
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Maximum Ride
Maximum Ride 2016
I moved relatively recently and with a different address, that comes with a different library and so I did what I typically do when I find a new source of movies: I do a search for “superhero” to see what comes up. And this is one of the movies that came up during that search. Doing a quick judgement call based on the cover and description and it sounded like a young adult novel adaptation trying to be the next X-Men. And it more or less was, although there was more of a focus on the experiment nature of the “Flock”, who I will be referring to as “Angels” because they’re basically just angels with retractable wings, plus some other powers that are barely fleshed out. And while I would call this even less of a superhero movie than the Darkest Minds, it was turned into a manga and even a Marvel comic book series well before being released as a movie. So there’s that. Of course, none of this actually made for a good movie. A superhero movie? Barely. A good movie? No.
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Freedom Fighters: The Ray
Freedom Fighters: The Ray 2017
This is the second Arrowverse connected series that originally premiered on CW Seed after Vixen over the course of two seasons of short webseries episodes. Unlike the other two CW Seed properties, this primarily takes place on Earth X with a lesser focus on the Arrowverse at large aside from some Earth X versions of the characters as well as a couple brief camoes from the series. They also don’t get the entire cast to reprise their voices, only Melissa Benoist for the alternate Supergirl and Carlos Valdez as Cisco. The movie is a decent distraction and does have its own unique take on pride, but there’s not really anything too special about it.
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I wasn’t planning on subscribing to what I expected to be an extremely limited streaming service even if it was a couple dollars below the typical $9.99 price point set my Netflix even though they recently raised their prices. But they had an introductory offer with the first week free and the first month at just $0.80 so I went ahead and jumped on it with the expectation of exploring it as much as I could in that month and then cancelling it. I’ve actually continued my subscription a few months past what I expected to, though I’m not entirely sure that I’m getting my money’s worth. Also, this article is part of my Patreon, where you could have gotten early access at just the initial tier and you would help me continue to create new content for this site.
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FTMN Quickie: Chronicle Director’s Cut
This review comes to you as part of my montly Patreon rewards, where if you would like to support and participate in this site, for just $1 a month you can help decide what I watch and review here each month. This was one of the surprise superhero movies that came out during the first year of this site back in 2012. Back then it was hailed as a breath of fresh air for both superhero movies as well as found footage films as it was one of the first popular found footage movies to step away from horror and one of the first superhero movies to focus more on the villain rather than the hero. As far as the differences between the director’s cut and the original cut, there are really only a few minor changes here and there but I do think that they mostly add to the film rather than take away from it.
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Spider-Man: Far From Home
This is the last movie in phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the second live action collaboration with Sony. We get to see the repercussions of Endgame and the introduction of a Mysterio that unfortunately wasn’t played by Bruce Campbell while Peter Parker tries to figure out whether or not he wants a normal life or a superhero life. It does a good job at balancing the teen comedy angle while still giving plenty of great action setpieces as well as a mind bending sequence that almost felt straight out of Doctor Strange. Like with most MCU movies it was fun and enjoyable with a touch of heart mixed in for good measure. And as with many of my recent posts, since this is a new release I will be discussing the plot in full including any potential spoilers so here’s your warning.
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Batman vs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Batman vs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2019
I’ve seen every animated Batman movie that they’ve made so far and I grew up with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon and live action movies. And while I haven’t followed up with many of the later series, the original Turtles cartoon still has a place in my heart and plenty of others so that the references often feel like they’re coming from the original rather than the later iterations. And while I was expecting this to be more of a younger skewed film where the Turtles would kid up the Batman, instead it actually seemed to go the other direction where Batman made the Turtles story a bit darker than usual. There was still a bit of meeting in the middle where the teenage comedy of the Turtles lightened up the Batman story and villains and made this an overall enjoyable watch. And as this is still a relatively new release, there will be spoilers from here on out so be warned.
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Men in Black International
Things have been slowing down a bit here, but I’ve still managed to make it to the theaters once again to catch the latest non-Disney Marvel movie that wasn’t Dark Phoenix. Ok, so technically it’s an extra step removed from being a Marvel movie since it’s the latest sequel in a series of movies that were originally loosely based on a Malibu comic that was purchased by Marvel comics. But this is kind of a rebootquel as it reboots the series with two new leads replacing Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, but still connects it to the previous three movies with references to Agents J and K as well as Emma Thompson as Agent O. The film was fun enough but it had a difficult time capturing the wonder of the first film while tossing in an undercooked mystery. And as this is a new release, I will be discussing the mystery in full so here’s your spoiler warning.
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Brightburn
Brightburn 2019
While much of the marketing of this movie focused on the well known director of Guardians of the Galaxy James Gunn, it was actually from two of his relatives who wrote the screenplay and it was given to director David Yarovesky, friend of the Gunns who directed the 70’s inspired music video for Guardians of the Galaxy starring David Hasselhoff and not a whole lot else. The movie itself is quite obviously a “What if?” story as in “What if Superman didn’t grow up to be a hero, but grew up to become a villain?” It’s a story that has been done before in the comics, and to a certain extent Chronicle also covered similar ground, but this takes it into full blown horror movie territory. That turns the movie into something quite different, and yet it was still relatively predictable as to what direction it was going. Despite that, it was still a creepy, fun ride.
Rendel
Rendel: Dark Vengeance 2017
This post partially came about as voted by members of my Patreon. Each month, I offer four movies and it’s up to the patrons to help decide what I get to watch. If you would like in on this, all I ask is just $1 a month to help this site continue and to grow. This movie is hailed as Finland’s first superhero movie, and while I can’t verify that statistic myself, I do know that it’s the only one that I’m aware of. At least until the sequel comes out. It’s a lower budget film, but one that really uses the budget quite well. And while the popular opinion on it is fairly low to middling, I actually quite enjoyed this take on more or less the Punisher with a few other odds and ends thrown in as well as a couple nice expectation subversions. There were definitely some storytelling and pacing issues, but overall it was quite violent with a touch of very dark humor.
Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 